Friday, January 6, 2017

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope it was a good one and full of love and
happiness. What a blessing it is for us
to get to have a chance to specifically stop and celebrate the birth of our Savior.
We had a fairly good week even if it
wasn't as eventful as most weeks.

Monday we just played some board games and had a little fun. Not too much happened.

Tuesday we worked at the Richard's farm as usual. We are taking down their tomato plants and
pulling starts out of the ground so they can be ready to re-till next year. Later we had planned to go tracting and as we
started, we talked with a guy for an hour and a half. We gave him a Light the World pass along card
and then that led into a huge discussion about the gospel. As we shared some of our beliefs with him, he
didn't agree and turned more into bashing on those beliefs. He told us to get rid of the Book of Mormon
because we didn’t need it. Then he shared
a great personal story that I thought showed why we need it, but he didn't make
the connection. He also tried to tell us
that we were told erroneously that the Bible talks about the Book of Mormon and
wouldn't believe us when we said that we found that out in our own study. He also wouldn't believe that we had found the
gospel was true for ourselves, but that we had basically been brainwashed and
told to believe it. He said that we
needed to pray and find out for ourselves, which we tried to explain that we already
have. He told us that we had been
deceived. By the end of this
conversation, I was a little frustrated and starting to get mad. I was almost ready to walk away without another
word. Needless to say, we ended the
conversation and moved on. We later had
a lesson with an old guy in his 80’s that was super nice. He wasn't interested in learning, just liked
talking to us. He was a funny guy and we
definitely needed that.

Wednesday we drove down to Morristown, TN to have a Christmas Conference with
our Zone and the Cumberland Zone. It was
super fun. We were told the Nativity
story, but with extra facts we didn't know and it helped us get a new
perspective on it. We had some lunch and
then played dodgeball. That was super
fun! I got nailed right in the mouth and
boy, did my face tingle for a little bit after that one! After that we got to watch Star Wars 7: The
Force Awakens and it was pretty good. I'm
glad our Mission President chose that one instead of some cartoon. When it was over, we helped clean up and traveled
back to our areas. We had about a 2 hour
drive.

Thursday we did a lot of finding. That
was most of our day. We even handed out
40 Light the World pass along cards. In
total we handed out 109 cards for the week. Then in the evening, we drove to the Marion area
so that I could interview one of their investigators, a 14 yr. old girl, for
baptism. She got baptized on Christmas
Eve.

Friday we did some weekly planning. Then
we had a lesson with a less-active and we shared the Light the World video. We did some finding and then had a lesson with
a guy named Travis. He is working on becoming
a member of the church.

Saturday we did some service for a member and they took us to lunch afterwards.
It was raining all day, but luckily it
was just misty. We did some finding
until we couldn't proselyte anymore for the evening. We went over to the Filetti's home and had
dinner with them. As one of their
traditions, they have a few different canned foods to try. I tried them all which was; oyster, calamari,
squid, and sardines in hot sauce. All of
which were not too bad. We had some fun
for the rest of the evening and then had a spiritual thought. The dad reads the Nativity and combines both
sides of the Bible and Book of Mormon - what was going on in both places at the
time of the birth of Christ.

Sunday was Christmas so we opened some gifts in the morning and then went to
church. This whole day was almost
exactly the same as last Christmas. Rainy
in the morning, then warm, but overcast for the rest of the day. It got up to 60 degrees, which I loved. Afterwards we had a lesson with our investigator
David. After that we had some fun and
dinner with a few member families. Then
we got to do the fun part of Christmas: We
Skyped our families. It was really fun! My grandma was there too, which was cool. We had lots of good laughs.

Well, that has been it from my end. I
wish you all a happy New Year. I also wish you good luck on making and keeping
your resolutions. If anything, try to actually
accomplish one of them and let it be towards doing good in the world. Until next time.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

So I know that not everyone will understand my
title, but there is a letter that was written by guy who was Riccardi's
missionary companion back in the 90s. He
tells all about his experiences and how bold he was. You will just have to read the Riccardi Letter
to understand it. Also, this email will
be a little shorter than the others because P-day was on Wednesday this week.

Wednesday we went and spent P-day with a bunch of other missionaries and went
to a jump park. It was a pretty cool
place. Then we just hung out at the
church.

Thursday we did a lot of finding and had a couple lessons with some new people.
It was freezing cold too.

Friday we did some weekly planning. Then
we went and helped a manager at Chick-fil-a move apartments. He is a pretty cool guy and he knows a few
members of the church that got us in contact with him. Afterwards we had dinner and games at a
member’s home with another part-member family.

Saturday we met with Miss Rush and then we went to a YSA activity we were
invited to. We were able to talk to a
non-member who was there and share a little bit about our church with him.

Sunday we had church. Then we went and had a lesson with David about tithing
and fast offerings. Ok so now for the
RIccardi moment. Late last night we got
a referral and so we called him after church and set up an appointment for
later that afternoon. We went over and met
this guy. He told us he wanted to join
the church because his girlfriend said she was going to be married in the
temple. During our conversation, we realized that may be the only reason why he
was interested instead of actually wanting to learn if this was true. He started to tell us that we were wrong and
some of our answers to his questions, which were spot-on, were not good enough
for him. He eventually ended up bashing
on our church and how we are no different than any other church. In the end, I was the most bold I probably have
ever been and told him something I have never told anyone before. I told him that he was not ready for the full,
restored gospel. He would be at some
point, just now he wasn't and that is ok. We would not be back to see him again, but
invited him to continue to pray, study, and search. I said it very boldly, but as polite as I
could. He told me that if I did that to
anyone else, I would get cussed out. He told
us that his door is always open and that he thought we would be back next week
to learn “truth.” I told him that we
would not, but we appreciated his time and questions.

I would just like to share my testimony that has continually grown through much
study and prayer. I do know that this is
the full and true gospel that has been restored to the earth in this modern
day. Throughout the world there are pieces of the gospel.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints has all of the pieces put together. We have a prophet on the earth that leads us
today. His name is Thomas S. Monson. This is Jesus Christ's church. He leads it. The Book of Mormon has been brought forth to
help us understand the teachings in the Bible even better. It is a second witness and teaches that Christ
is our Savior. We have been taught all
of the sacred ordinances that can bless us and help us return to our Heavenly
Father. I have come to know these things
to be true though my own study and then asked the One who knows all. My answer to that prayer came through a warm,
good feeling of the Holy Ghost. I cannot
deny the answer that I knew I had received. Now I am out here to help others come to know
these things to be true for themselves. I
pray the Lord will show these people to me and if I find those who are not ready
yet, then I will try to help them continue on their journey towards God. God has a plan for all of us. It is a perfect plan. We need never fear if we are to have faith in
God. Put Him on your team and trust Him
and you will never fail because He never fails. I leave you with these things in the name of
our Beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

This
email will be a little longer due to the extra days because of our Zone Conference.
This week was full of snow, exchanges,
and learning.

Monday we just hung out with the other
missionaries in our District. We played
board games and sports.

Tuesday was a great day. We started out working at the Richard's farm. We helped clean out some of their storage
sheds because it was raining. Later we
did a bunch of finding. We were looking
for this one less-active in a trailer park, but they had moved a while ago. The guy who lives there now is named David. We talked with him for a while and had a great
conversation. He had a great story of
how God has helped him in his life recently. He got emotional in front of us too. We asked him if we could come back and share a
message that will bring him closer to his Heavenly Father and he said we could.
Later we met a less-active who started
out a little rude then changed. She
became very nice and even said she wanted to come back to church. She called us Sunday morning saying she still
wanted to come, but was super sick, which was a bummer. We then met with one of our investigators. We first went in planning to teach the
Restoration, but as we started, I asked how he has seen God's hand in his life?
His answer took the whole lesson in a
different direction and we learned so much more about him. Now we can better teach to his needs. Today
was again, a great day.

Wednesday we met with a guy named Travis. We are trying to encourage him to come to church.
We then met with Miss Rush and had a
good gospel discussion with her. Her
only thing is that she doesn't want to find out if these things are true yet -
so we are not too sure what to do to help her. Later that evening we had Book
of Mormon class.

Thursday we had District Meeting. The Zone Leaders came and we had exchanges
afterwards. I went to Johnson City with
Elder Simmonson. He is from Grace, ID. He has been out just a couple weeks more than
me. We did some finding and then had a
lesson with one of their investigators. We
also helped one of their neighbors put up her Christmas lights. It didn't look too bad at night.

Friday morning we were in studies, and I looked
out the window and I saw these huge flakes of snow falling from the sky. It didn't last too long and nothing stayed on
the ground. That morning we went
tracting and it was really cold and windy.
There were really little flakes of snow too. So later we exchanged back and we did some
more finding until we had to do weekly planning. That night we had a lesson
with an investigator and her less-active husband. It was really frustrating for both Elder
Anderson and I - we ended up dropping them since they don’t really seem
interested in learning right now.

Saturday we saved the lives of some chickens
and ducks. We went to a member’s home in
the morning to do service and as we went to let out their animals, a light had
fallen onto a bag of shredded wood and it started to burn. When we opened the door, it was extremely
smokey. We are lucky we got there before
the animals became rotisserie chicken and roast duck. That afternoon we went out with Tyler who is a
senior in high school. We saw an
investigator named Don and had a good lesson on the Spirit. We saw a few other people that afternoon. That night we had the ward Christmas party. We had a couple investigators show up, which was
awesome. We had more people there than
we do for Sacrament meeting. Hopefully
those people that don't normally come to church will start coming.

Sunday we met with David and they fed us
dinner. We shared the Bearing our
Burdens Mormon Message. That was about it
for our day.

Monday was an awesome day. We got to learn from Elder Neilson of the 70 who
is one of the heads of the Missionary Department. I learned some really awesome things from him,
his wife, and President Griffin. First
was President Griffin. He took the
allegory of the vineyard in Jacob 5 and made it into a parable and compared it
to us and how the Lord sends us to where we need to be and who we need to be
with for a specific reason. We also are
sent there at specific times or else our experiences would be completely
different. We are there at those
specific times because it will be something we need to learn at that point in
our life and service. Then Sister
Neilson talked about companions and how we can get along with them better. It also is helping us learn how to spend the
rest of our life with our Eternal Companions. Elder Neilson first talked about how we are
assigned to labor. When choosing
someone's mission call, one of the Apostles will pray and receive revelation on
it. Sometimes we are assigned to the
mission, but he said that sometimes we are assigned to the Mission President
and his wife. For me I think that maybe
I was sent to the Nashville mission for some specific reasons and then when the
Apostle re-prayed over my assignment to switch Missions, I was assigned to the
Griffins. Still trying to work that one
out. He also taught us that our job as
missionaries is to help connect people to Heaven, to help them receive
revelation on their own through the scriptures, prayer, and coming to church. He said that if he was to give us another name,
it would be Inviters. He told us that if
he was to look up what words we used the most on our mission, one of them
should be "will you...?" He
taught us on what we can do for finding and we were able to figure out some of
the most effective ways to find people to teach. Another thing I learned was that this gospel
is a forward-looking gospel. God doesn't
reflect back on past mistakes and sins and nether should we. The thing that stuck with me the most though was
his comment about fear and faith. He
told a story about an Elder in his mission when he was serving in Finland and
he told us that when fear is present, faith is gone, but when faith in Jesus
Christ is present, fear can never exist. That got me pumped and wanting to exercise
more faith. Fear only comes from the
adversary and the only way to overcome it is to have faith that the Lord will
help you. As my dad would say,
"F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real." So that was about the extent of our meeting
and so it was really cool to learn all of these awesome things and be re-energized
and uplifted in the work.

Tuesday we went to the Richard's farm again. Later we did some finding and handed out a ton
of Light the World pass along cards; even when it was dark, rainy, and
cold.

So what has become of the world today in the
holidays? We all can see that everything
is now more commercialized and we are forgetting the true meaning behind what
we are celebrating. If we break down
Christmas, we get Christ and mas. Mas in
Spanish means more and so we need more Christ. That is partly why I think the church came out
with this great service program entitled Light the World. We are all focused on getting other people
gifts which is good, but do we remember to give our Heavenly Father and Jesus
Christ a gift? When we serve others, we
also serve God. Serving others can be the
gift we give to Him and to show our love. It doesn't have to be anything big or complex.
Simplicity is key and even God delights
in plainness. It doesn't matter who it
is either, the thing to remember is to just do it. Show forth the Light of Christ within you and
then we will have more Christ, not just during this time of the year, but
always. These things I leave with you in
the name of He whose birth we celebrate now, Jesus Christ, amen.